HATS - A SHORT FILM

A man and woman in a dreary, monochrome world lock eyes, setting off a chain of events in which they are inexplicably linked, each discovering what it means to find true connection and fill their lives with a little bit of color.

Aaron berke - Writer, Director

After graduating from Brandeis University, Aaron entered the independent film world, editing long-form documentaries on a freelance basis. as a writer-director, his tastes lie in utilizing genre to tell stories that exist just to the left of reality, focusing on the interplay between the humanistic and fantastical to explore the human condition without alienating an uninformed audience.

Max Rothman - Producer

Right out of the University of Miami, Max worked in the post-production department of NBC News as part of the editing team for the Today Show and Dateline. After a year and half there, he took his talents to the freelance world, producing and editing content for musicians, emerging talents in the New York comedy scene, and some of today's brightest up-and-coming filmmakers, all under his Monticello Park Productions banner. He also writes and directs his own short films, 3 of which are set for release in late 2016/early 2017.

Anthony Misiano - HIM

Anthony Misiano began acting at the age of 14 and has since performed in dozens of productions throughout Southern California. In 2008 he left the theater world to pursue acting on camera, and has since appeared in a bevy of short films, as well as the AMC series Turn: Washington's Spies. He also produces and directs through his company Inventive Works.

Carolyn Cutillo - Her

Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania (of The Officefame), Carolyn now lives in New York City and is pursuing her acting career full-time. She recently earned her BFA in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. During her time at NYU, she trained at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, where she studied a multi-disciplinary approach to theater, and went on to train at the Experimental Theater Wing and Stonestreet Screen Acting Studios, where she focused on acting for stage, film, and commercials.﻿

Alejandro Salinas-Albrecht - director of photography

﻿Alejandro (Alex) grew up in Mexico-city and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a degree in Film Production at Cal-State Northridge in Los Angeles. After working as an electrician and gaffer right out of school, he received an MFA in cinematography from UCLA. Since moving to New York, he has shot various short films and low-budget features, and has been involved in three Rabbit Bandini Productions, having the opportunity to work with and shoot actors such as Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, and James Franco.

Director's Statement

As a child of cinema, I fell in love with the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and countless others. As I grew up, my love for these relatively simple, comedic, yet universally relatable films never dwindled, and I made it a goal of mine to make a silent-era style film updated for today's modern world. As I grew both emotionally and creatively, I fell in love with another, similar set of films - the Pixar Short Film Collection. In the best versions of these, complex emotional stories are told without the use of dialogue, using a pure, childlike sensory experience to create identification in a character going through an exaggerated but palpable dilemma, evoking power through the simplicity of their obstacles combined with the heft of the underlying themes. Thus, in developing Hats, I aimed to merge the two styles - which have much overlap in visual technique, and how laughs are derived from physical comedy - while telling a simple love story about two people who feel as if their potential is being held back by the corporate, drone-like environments they feel trapped in. As I come from an editing and color correcting background, I decided to use the tools of color to capture each character's gradual liberation from their fearful, stubborn mindsets, and in doing so got to explore how modulating one's palette - both physically and emotionally - can open ourselves up to new, exciting opportunities whose endgame is unknown, thus leaving the opportunities for satisfaction nearly endless.